Wu Zetian was a pioneer of the feminist movement in China, and although her feminist movement ended in failure, the shock left on historical development was far-reaching. Some people say that she is notorious for her cruel and cold-blooded suppression of political enemies and the debauchery of her personal life, but she also has to admit that she is a pioneering empress of a generation.
In her lifetime, Wu Zetian created 20 characters by herself, but almost all of them were abolished after her death, which cannot but be said to be the failure of the so-called "new cultural movement" that was ridiculed by later generations. What is more interesting is that there is a word that has not been abolished, but no one has ever "dared" to use it, let alone take it as their own name. This word is "曌".
It was the first word she coined, and it was made for her own new name: Wu Cao (武曌). Of course, Wu Zetian did not have the talent for language and writing to create this peculiar Chinese character, which was created by her compatriot Zong Qinke, who was then a Zhongshu waiter, for the sake of flattery and dedication to Wu Zetian.
Based on Wu Zetian's real name "Wu Zhao", he changed the word "Zhao" to "曌". This word, seemingly complex, but the meaning is very simple and clear, Wu Zetian understood at a glance, the word "曌" the sun and the moon are one, yin and yang are one, nothing more than the sun and the moon are the same glow, when the sky shines on the earth. That is to say, she Wu Zetian is both the sun of the sky and the moon of the sky, no matter day or night, all the time, she is shining on the earth, in fact, every hour of the day, she is ruling the country, nakedly exposing the ambition to be called emperor. Moreover, she combines the wisdom and energy of women and men, of course, she can rule the men and women in the world, and it is natural to be the empress.
So, the word "曌" has been passed down to future generations, and now computers can also type this word, but why do people in later generations never use this word, let alone use it as a name?
First of all, this word was created for Wu Zetian, that is, this word can only exist as her name, there is no other way. So people can only use this word when referring to her, and in other languages, the word has no meaning.
Since there is no actual language expression function, it is normal for people not to use this word for written expression. Therefore, in this sense, there is no such thing as daring or not daring. Since the word "曌" is synonymous with Wu Zetian, it is even less likely that people will use this word as their own name. Because many people think that Wu Zetian has a bad reputation in history and is extremely cruel, using this word as his name is equivalent to self-insult. In particular, the traditional saying that Wu Zetian's empress is like "hen reporting the dawn", which is very unlucky, is an ominous omen, and makes people avoid it when taking names, and no one dares to ask about it.
In fact, I don't dare to use the word "曌" as a name, nor do I dare to, it should be said that it is also due to some kind of avoidance of the name of the emperor Chinese. For example, in contemporary times, no one is called "Liu Bang", "Li Longji", "Zhao Kuangyin", "Zhu Yuanzhang". Even Wang Bang, Zhao Longji, Zhang Kuangyin, and Song Yuanzhang did not dare to call. Why? The name is too big and the name is unlucky. Especially children, who call the name of the eldest wife, are not easy to support.
From this point of view, people really dare not use the name of "曌" and other words that are used or used by emperors. Interestingly, Wu Zetian's name change formed a culture of imperial naming, and later effective imitators, such as Liu Gong (劉龑) of the Southern Han Dynasty. , Liu Zhi, Liu Yan, Liu Yan, and Zhao Jiong (赵匡義, Zhao Guangyi) of the Northern Song Dynasty all learned from her and changed their names.
Of course, Wu Zetian's character creation is also part of her political struggle, which serves her to implement authoritarian rule and is also the embodiment of her personal arbitrariness and arbitrariness. Throughout her life, she was superstitious about writing, believing that changing the name of a person or thing would affect its direction. Therefore, in the court struggle, the "king" of Empress Wang was changed to "python", and the "Xiao" of Xiao Shufei was changed to "owl", which was obviously out of insult and hatred. However, historical and cultural traditions have strong vitality and will not be changed according to the likes and dislikes of a certain person.
Wu Zetian's change of characters is only a farce of history, and the only word "Cao" that has been handed down is not so much her masterpiece of character creation as evidence of her destruction of culture.